Texter

If you thought about it, I think you’d be surprised at how often you type the same things everyday. Now, wouldn’t it be much easier to have the computer type those things for you? That would be so useful, don’t you think?! It would save a lot of time too. Well, it just so happens that an application I’m going to show you today will do just that!

The program we will be working with today is very simple, yet very powerful and it goes by the name of Texter. Adam Pash of Lifehacker, Inc. developed Texter himself. So, what does it do? Well, it allows you to program a hotstring and a replacement phrase. When you type the hotstring and hit a certain trigger key, the entire phrase will appear for you. For example, if the keyword is ”add” and I programmed the replacement phrase as my address, I would type “add” and then hit the trigger button. Once I do that, my address would appear. That can save a whole lot of time. Pretty cool, huh?!

To get it for yourself, just follow these directions:

1.) First, you’ll need to download the Texter program from this link. Run the installer and when prompted, accept the default installation folder. Also, select Yes when asked to check for updates at each startup.

2.) Now, go to Start and click Run. Then copy and paste this line: C:/Program Files/Texter into the textbox and hit Enter.

3.) The Texter directory will then appear. Right click the Texter icon, scroll to Send To and click Desktop.

4.) A shortcut will appear on your desktop. Texter should be open already and in it, you should see your taskbar. Here’s what the program in your taskbar looks like, magnified:

If you don’t see it in your taskbar, click the shortcut on your desktop and it will then appear.

5.) Next, double click the icon and the program will open up.

6.) To add a new hotstring, click the + button and the window above will open.

7.) Type in the hotstring (for example, “add”). Then type in the replacement text in the large box. Finally, select the trigger(s). The trigger key is the key you press after typing in the hotstring to make the replacement text appear. Choose Enter, Tab or Space. Click OK and you’ve just made your first hotstring!

8.) You can try it out by going into your e-mail service. Type in the hotstring, click the trigger key and the text will appear! Now, let’s go into some of the features of Texter.

There are also some special code words you can use in your replacement texts. Enter the code word and when you use the hotstring, the output will be what is listed below. Check out this table of all the keywords for more help:

Code Word

Output

%c

Whatever is on the clipboard.

%ds

Short date (i.e. 7/12/2007).

%dl

Long date (i.e. Thursday, July 12, 2007).

%t

Time (i.e. 4:30).

I use these, because on my Web site, I enter the date in which the page was last updated. So, I created a hotstring with this replacement text: “This page was last updated on %ds at %t.” Works like a charm!

And boy, that’s just one example of how you can use Texter to your advantage!

You can also use Texter as a universal auto corrector (to find out more about this, click here).

To do so:

1.) Create a new hotstring, with a typo or misspelled word as the hotstring and the correct spelling as the replacement text. Also, after the replacement text, hit the Spacebar once.

2.) Finally, set the Spacebar as the trigger key.

3.) If you mess up when typing, right after you misspell the word and click the Spacebar, it will be fixed! Other useful applications of Texter include using it to hold your HTML codes for things like Web banners and e-mail icons. Or, if ur obsessed w/ srt hand, use Txtr to fix that 2! : )

If you have trouble remembering all of your hotstrings (like I do), you can print a list of them out to keep on hand. To do that:

1.) Right click the taskbar icon, click Preferences and then select the Print tab.

2.) Click the Create Printable Texter Cheat Sheet button and the list will be sent to your browser.

3.) You can print it from there by selecting File, followed by Print.

Now, just to show you how much time and energy Texter saves you, check out the Stats tab in the Preferences window. There you can see how many snippets have been expanded, the number of characters replaced and finally, the hours that have been saved. After you see that, you’ll wonder what you ever did without Texter!

If you want to have easier access to Texter, set it to open at each startup. To do that, right click the icon in your taskbar and click Preferences. Then select Run Texter at Setup. Also, if you want to run Texter off a USB drive (flash drive, for instance) so that you can just plug your USB drive into any computer and use Texter on that computer, you will need to install this program onto your drive. To read more about running applications on a USB drive, click here. Cool, huh?!

Note: WorldStart is not the developer of this software and cannot offer technical support.

Now, go on and enjoy your texting!

~ Neil Patel

This entry was posted on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 3:12 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. 3961

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